


Still I call it magic

by Midgetphan



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Friends to Lovers, M/M, Strangers to Friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 11:02:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16617725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midgetphan/pseuds/Midgetphan
Summary: Years ago, you promised your firstborn to a witch. Since then, despite your best efforts, you can’t seem to get laid. The witch is starting to get pretty pissed.





	Still I call it magic

2009

Dan is living his fucking nightmare with every step he takes. Long, skeletal trees shadowing the path. The moon, barely visible between branches being the only thing illuminating his direction. Said direction being at least a hundred steps from his grandma’s house heading towards the small pond he used to play in when he was a kid.

Or so he hopes otherwise he is lost and doomed to die by poor orientation skills.

At least it’s not winter, neither summer, or he would be perishing by any extreme of the otherwise boring London weather. The fallen leaves crunch under heavy step of his tall frame and he swears to himself because he should have brought his earphones at least. Kanye’s voice would make this whole experience less frightening to be honest, but in his rush he has left behind many things on the house behind him except for the red lighter he bought last week and never leaves his pocket.

Kanye’s voice may also be good to stop his tears, he thinks, using his sweater paw to clean the moisture falling from his eyes. The pond is visible now, right in front of him. Illuminated by the moon, obscuring everything else around it so blue is the only color left on the scene. It somehow makes him cry more.

He is being dramatic and he knows it but, fuck it, Erin and her three years of loving and closeness had just left him less than half an hour ago without a way of reconciliation, his grandma isn’t home, his parents don’t give a shit and his friends are already packing to leave for college and he is going to die alone. Alone and alone and miserable and forgotten.

“Fuck.”

He sits, legs pressed to his torso. Lets the misery swallow him and inflate his chest. Because this is what frightens him more. Slenderman can wait, the darkness hunting behind him with secrets can wait. His shattering feeling of being alone can win them on a duel in a second as it is. In a world full of wonders and magic and normality he is one and by himself. And Dan hates it. He hates how easily everyone is leaving to study and have a life or simply walking away to more important things and he is staying behind.

No one is staying with him because he has always known, he is disposable. Never one person’s favorite. Perhaps for Erin for a while but she is leaving now and he is not willing to fight because he loves her but not enough to follow. It makes him cry harder then, the idea of not finding anyone to follow to begin with. He had thought she was going to be the one he will always fight for but she had asked and not a single particle of him had agreed. He doesn’t blame her for leaving so upset. He is upset at himself too. Afraid of his lack of will.

And that fear, that deep, endless pit of a future where he never finds someone to share his life with is what makes him stand up.

“I want to make a deal.” He croaks to the moon. Clears his throat and repeats it with a clearer voice “I want to make a deal.”

“Heard you the first time.” The voice from behind him startles the soul out of his body and he yelps turning to meet whoever spoke.

“Jesus on a fucking shit!”

He is greeted by a boy, not that older than him he guesses. Skin as white as the moon itself. Eyes wide and shiny, reflecting the glimmering of the water near them, and a little amused smirk he was not even trying to hide. The hair though. Pretty much the same as his only cooler and black and Dan is immediately envious of the shape of it in comparison of his own. The boy speaks again.

“Wow. Blasphemy at it best.” He walks closer and Dan starts thinking it might be a bad idea as his first summoning has gone too easily. Either that or he is being pranked because the outfit and manners of this boy (an inch taller than him it seems now that he is closer) are far from what he expected.

Witches, curses and many folklore things are common since the Halloween incident of 1957 when they had officially come out to the world (or, out of the hat as they called) after living in the shadows for so long. It had taken humanity a while to accept them, as in every different group ever, but ultimately reached an agreement of being and let it be. Cautiousness still prevailed in smaller towns but with laws and rights implemented it was becoming more and more normal to have neighbors who prepare potions instead for hobbies.

Dan had experienced a few encounters with magic and its branches himself; with gnomes for example, annoying destructive creatures that enjoyed pranking his dog, and that one teacher who turned out to be a witch in primary school. Literally and metaphorically. After being cursed with pig noses along the rest of his classroom for making too much noise (for which she obviously lost her job and refused to undo the curse for three months), Dan had developed a somewhat fear of magic. Not exactly something he looked for as many of his classmates had in order to find remedies for acne or love potions. Many things Dan is skeptical about to this day.

But the guy in front of him looked nothing like his teacher, or many of the other witches streaming on the media. Long coats and tall pointy hats. This guy was wearing jeans and a shirt too tight and colorful to be a wizard. Apart from pointing out how his hair is nothing like what he expected. And he seems to have cold in fact, if his rubbing his arms is anything to go by.

“So. Are you going to tell me what you want or…?” he says making Dan realize he has been quiet for too long now.

His cheeks start blushing then.

If an old lady with huge nose and perhaps an apple had been the one to appear instead. This guy could easily be one of his friends from school for God’s sake.

“R-right. I want to make a deal with you.”

“Yeah, I got that. So what do you want?”

Dan notes then the strong northern accent. As far as anything else he could have expected and he sniffs, both from cold and from his crying of before.

“Sorry.”  The magical boy with northern accent and emo fringe is blushing too. Flexes his hands as if not sure of what to do with them. His eyes widen more which makes him look like a deer about to get hit by a car.

“Huh?”

“You took me by surprise and I was being rude. You are clearly upset by something and, er, called for help. Let me help you.”

Dan’s brain, suffocated by emotions by now after a long afternoon followed by the most exercise he has done in months, is taken back by the sincerity of the emo fringe witch, who didn’t have to apologize because he had not been rude at all but maybe Dan looks as fragile as he feels right now and fuck, that’s embarrassing. He is crying before he can stop himself again. Covers his face with his hands to prevent the ugly sobbing from being too visible.

“Shit! Sorry, I didn’t mean to… come here.” He wants to talk and say he will be okay. Or maybe run and forget he just cried in front of a magical person out of nowhere. But gentle hands are guiding him somewhere and out of curiosity and fear he opens his eyes to see. “Alright, uhm. See that water lotus over that is near us?”

He clears his eyes to look at it. “The one that’s dying?”

“Right. Now don’t move.” The boy lifts a hand to his face and Dan flinches back in response to which the boy stops. His eyes are pleading and this time Dan holds still while a finger recollects some of the moisture his tears left behind on his cheek. “Look.”

Dan follows while the boy whispers something to his finger before softly caressing the dying flower with the remaining of his tears. He half expects a light or even some dramatic wind to fulfill the moment but nothing happens. And nothing is needed because before his eyes the perishing flower recovers its life. The petals spring back pointing up and beautiful and its subtle but yet real.

“Wow.”

“Ace right?”

Dan looks to his left where this by all means normal looking guy has just brought back something to life and bursts out laughing.

“Ace? Oh my God.”

The witch seems confused for a moment but as Dan keeps on laughing he laughs along. “Shut up.”

“Alright, alright. That was ace man.”

“Thank you. Better now?” the magic boy rolls his eyes but seems amused still.

“Yeah.”

“Kind of?”

“Kind of.”

Dan takes a deep breath. This, this is what he enjoys. Laughing has not the same meaning if it doesn’t make someone else laugh along. This world is filled with magic and beauty in ways he has yet to discover and this particular night is proving him that. But he doesn’t have anyone to tell this short yet magical story to when he comes back home. No one to share how this northern guy has just made him laugh with a simple word. And that, that breaks his heart.

“I want to find my soul mate.” He says staring directly into the other’s eyes. “I want to find the love of my life and have a happy life with her.” He doubts for a second. “Or him.”

The boy blinks a couple of times. “You don’t really need magic to do that, you know?”

He knows that. But statistics resonate in his brain, and by calculations and given how his life has developed so far he is more likely to be lucked out and the idea is frightening enough to constrict his throat. It has been eating his brain for too long now to be ignored.

“I just… I don’t want be alone.” He whispers.

Dan doesn’t look up. He doesn’t need the look of sympathy or boredom he might be receiving. He hears a sigh instead.

“Alright but I have to warn you it might take a while. You won’t find the person tomorrow necessarily, it could take years. How old are you anyway?”

“Seventeen.”

The boy whistles “That’s very young mate.”

“Yeah.”

“Like, really young. You’re still a fetus.”

Dan looks at the guy again and frowns. “As if you’re an old man.”

The witch shrugs and smiles. A smile Dan recognizes as he has given it to his younger brother a couple of times himself. “At my twenties. But look, uhm, what’s your name?”  

“Dan.”

“I’m Phil. Look, Dan. A lot of people fear they won’t ever find their soulmates but you are young man. Not sore for the eyes exactly so I’m sure it will be easy for you to find someone, just wait mate.”

“I’m not an idiot. I have conditions.”

“Conditions?” Phil lifts an eyebrow.

“I want to meet them before my thirties. Not any teen book drama bullshit like we meet the second before our imminent death or anything either.”

Witch Phil laughs, his hands resting on his pockets now in a weird position Dan is sure shouldn’t be comfortable at all. “Help you find the person and prevent you from dying. Got it. But what if they don’t reciprocate? By rule we can’t alter human emotions.”

That is an option he knows and fears. Dan thinks for a moment before answering “I want to find them. To know they exists. A person for me. I will take care of the rest.”

Phil stares for a second too long, his face unreadable for Dan. “Anything else?”

“I want to know. When I meet them. Somehow I want to know.”

“You will.”

“Okay then.”

“The second you turn thirty the contract is over and I, no longer will have the power to reclaim the payment if you have not yet met them.”

Dan swallows then. This is it. He has heard of it before but none other than from warnings and stories meant to prevent humans to do this kind of pacts with witches. “And, what is it? The payment.”

Phil doubts for a moment. If he weren’t so pale Dan would swear he is blushing and he wonders if the myths are correct. What could this young witch possibly want with a human life anyway? For a second Dan thinks, hopes, Phil is going to ask for money. No matter the amount he would get it. Anything but…

“Your firstborn.”

He can’t help it then. Curiosity takes the best of him. “Why?”

“None of your business.”

He takes a step back, for the first time honestly frightened by the witch Phil. The corners of his lips falling, jaw tensing “You… you don’t eat them right?”

“What?” Phil’s face crumbles with a disgusted grimace “Of course not! That’s macabre!”

“Then why…”

“Nothing perverse! Jeez Dan what kind of twisted mind do you have?”

“Alright, alright. I had to ask right?”

“I’m going to have nightmares now.”

Dan rolls his eyes. Swallows a commentary about that because this person in front of him has magic in his veins, no matter how normal he looks, and upsetting him could mean a humiliation or death itself.

“If you still want to make the deal then someday, I will tell you why. But that’s what it takes.”

It’s getting late and, night owl and all, Dan is starting to feel it in his bones. This person, this awkward witch he just met, with his emo fringe and delicate fingers and big shinning eyes could never hurt a baby. Of that he is certain. Certain as endless possibilities launch on his mind that this is as magical as his life will get. His thirtieth birthday will arrive and he will remember this day and laugh back because witch Phil will fail or forget and move on. Dispose him too.

“Deal.” He extends his hand. Tired and sad and mostly prepared now to face the oncoming days when his family will ask about Erin and look away in pity for the girl he had abandoned as numerous things in his life.

Phil looks surprised, Dan doesn’t want to keep explaining himself or his reasons so he keeps his hand there, waiting between them.

When Phil finally grasps it, it feels electric. Goosebumps on his whole body makes him shiver and Dan gasps.

“Deal.”

Only then he realizes, witch Phil has blue eyes. The water has not been reflecting on his eyes, if he were to be asked he would say it was the opposite. Again the color blue swallows every color around them and Dan has to blink hard because he is hallucinating. Eyes can’t have more than one color can they?

Then it’s warm. Warm all over his body and his eyes are fighting to stay alert. But Dan smiles, cocky and skeptic not of magic but of himself.

“Alright Phil. Help me find my soulmate.”

**Author's Note:**

> I realize it may not make sense so far but I promise I have a whole plot developed. And in case you read the link I have above then yeah that’s basically what’s going to happen. I haven’t rated it because as much as I’ll keep it as a slowburn I can’t promise there will or won’t be any smut. However if anything woo-hoo’ish happens it won’t be for a long time still. Soz.


End file.
